Halo: Inheritance
by 117Jorn
Summary: The multiverse is a crazy thing, one person's fiction can be another person's reality in another universe. But when two such universes cross together, as two induviduals find themselves in the Halo Universe, one to become an ODST for the UNSC, and the other to become a SPARTAN for ONI, the fate of not just the Halo universe, but their own universe hangs in the balance. M for resons
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I do not own the Halo Franchise by any means. Also, if you like fics like these, I highly recommend you reading 'Kyle 091' by general MB, and 'Into the Fire' by Heretic Knight 515. Both are exceptionally good fics by VERY good authors, and have inspired myself and Patriot-112 to write this fanfic. Please enjoy :D**

* * *

 **September 23rd 2015 AD**

 **North America**

* * *

A young man with short brown hair and brown eyes wearing a pair of dark green jean shorts and a black T-shirt, looking to be in his late teens or early twenties walked down the streets of his hometown, a pair of earphones on as he listened to the music on his Iphone, hefting up the heavy bookbag on his back. ' _Why does the closest library have to be a damn mile away from my house?_ ' He thought to himself, groaning as he walked home. ' _Wouldn't be a problem if I had my own car..._ '

Jordan Tackett was on his way home from the local library. He was returning from the small anime club that he was a part off that his friend hosted there. The whole club wasn't centered around Anime though, it was about anime, manga, video games, books, comics… anything that anyone of all ages would love. Today's topic though was a bit centered around a particular science fiction franchise that was on the verge of releasing its next installment next month:

Halo.

While Jordan had a love for all things science fiction and even fantasy, with interest in Star Wars, Star Trek and the like, his number one favorite genre in video games, and science fiction in general (excluding Mecha-based anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Macross/Robotech) was the Halo Universe. It was the game which first got him hooked into the wider range of science fiction to begin with. Sure he knew of Star Wars and Star Trek as a child, but becoming a young adult, Halo has been his favorite series. The music was amazing, gameplay, the storyline, he could find very little to really complain about Halo aside from minor issues, and always liked talking about it.

Hence why his friend thought it was a good idea to bring their local Halo expert - that being Jordan - to the Anime meeting to help discuss the game, and all of the books, comics, spinoffs and movies that had been created in the series wake. To do so, he brought with him arguably his entire Halo collection, including the games, the DVD's to Halo Legends and Forward Unto Dawn, pretty much every book and comic book to be published at the time, even downloaded examples of Halo-based Machinima like Red vs Blue. And, due to the fact he was the only one in the anime club (at the time) who owned and Xbox One, he had brought his unit over so they could play the Halo Master Chief Collection.

And now, here he was - nearly 8:00 PM at night with him hefting most of his stuff back home on a mile-long walk, carrying all he brought with him in a backpack and a computer case over his shoulder. Silently cursing himself for never getting his licence yet so he could've just _driven_ home.

' _I could totally buy a Jeep Wrangler from my dad,_ ' He thought to himself, continuing to berate himself as he listened to 'Blow Me Away' from Breaking Benjamin. ' _Hmmm… I wonder if I_ did _get one, if I could mod it for airsoft… just think of me driving a Wrangler with Dennis on the back firing his Airsoft M2… it'd be like driving in with a Warthog!_ '

Before he could continue his thoughts on how to make his next airsoft match all the more interesting, he heard a strange whirring sound to his right, as he looked down an alleyway between a few old stores. "Hello?" Jordan called out, "Dennis, that you buddy?"

He didn't hear a response, and he was about to continue on his way chalking it off as some random noise… but that was when he heard the growling. At first he thought it was a dog or something… but then he saw something move _very_ fast from between the garbage cans, causing him to jump.

"Uhh… w-who's there?" He asked, thought he was beginning to consider just saying 'screw it' and run as fast as he could back home as possible. but that train of thought ended when the… _thing_ appeared from atop one of the garbage cans, revealing a bird-like face with razor sharp teeth carrying some sort of glowing item in his arm, snarling at him.

Jordan's eyes widened as he almost immediately recognized the creature… it was a Ruutian Kig-yar, or more commonly known as Jackals across the Halo Universe, most notably being the Jackals from the vast majority of halo games. Judging from its gear, he could tell it was a Jackal from Halo: Reach, and he could tell it was armed with what appeared to be a Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher - aka the Needler.

For a few moments, the Jackal and Jordan just stared at one another. While whatever was going on in the mind of the Jackal was a mystery, Jordan on the other hand had his mind racing, trying to figure out why a _fictional alien_ was standing right in front of him! ' _I'm dreaming… fucking hell, I HAVE to be dreaming..._ '

A car sped past them, seeming to pay no mind to the situation. However this drew the Jackal's attention as he fired his Needler at the passing Car. Jordan quickly weighed his options, knowing he couldn't possibly _outrun_ a Jackal considering how fast and mobile they are in the games. So that really only left him with one option, as stupid as it was.

Jordan ran towards the Jackal as fast as he could. The Jackal, seeing him charging at him, brought the Needler back towards him, and fired off two shots. They hit Jordan square in the gut, as he groaned, but kept pushing before he crashed into the Jackal, sending them both to the ground. Though it seemed luck was smiling at Jordan, for due to the combined weight of all of his stuff in his backpack, combined by his own body weight and the Jackal's own relatively hollowed bones, he crushed the Jackal's bones from under his weight, causing the creature to howl in pain.

Jordan got up, and proceed to stamp on the Jackal's face repetitively, "Just. Fucking. Die. You. Stupid. Fucking. BIRD!" He shouted at each kick, before finally, the Jackal fell limp on the ground, surrounded in a pool of purplish blue and red… blood…

' _Wait..._ ' he thought, ' _Jackal blood isn't… red..._ ' He glanced down, and he finally registered that he had been hit with two needles in his torso, both of the pink crystal detonating, but not in the combined explosion effect thankfully, as Jordan realized he was bleeding. The Adrenaline leaving his system as he collapsed to the ground on his knees.

"Fuck… fuck..." he muttered, as he tried to stay contous from the blood loss, but his vision was already starting to go blurry. "Hell of a… way to go… getting axed by a... by an alien..."

Jordan began to fall over, before his hand unknowingly grazed the strange object the Jackal was carrying, as it began to glow bright gold. "Let's see… who's imaginary friend… was right... " He muttered, as his vision blurred in a flash of light, before he felt nothingness.

* * *

 **Sector K-009, UNSC _Hopeful_ , **

**February 9th 2545 AD**

* * *

Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose sighed, as he looked out the window which overlooked one of the main medical facilities of the UNSC _Hopeful_. Inside he could see the hundreds of young boys and girls, none of them older than twelve of thirteen as they began undergoing a series of chemically-induced drugs, to become the very thing he had become many years ago - Spartans.

It was time for the augmentation process for the SPARTAN-III's of Beta Company - to replace the loss of the vast majority of the Alpha Company Spartans from Operation: PROMETHEUS. While Beta Company had improvements from the lessons learned from Alpha, Kurt still had many doubts. He already knew from Mendez that Ackerson was already planning another mission for the SPARTAN-III's, and he once again knew that it would likely be another suicide mission much like PROMETHEUS.

' _Wasted lives..._ ' He thought to himself, thinking about the lessons that Mendez had once told him and the SPARTAN-II's when they were being trained. To know the difference between lives wasted, and lives spent. Was it vital for the K7-49 shipyard to be destroyed? Kurt would not argue with that, but he _would_ argue the fact that there were other ways to have done it without sending the Spartan's to their deaths. Providing actual orbital support, extra ground troops… but there was little the Lieutenant Commander could do, with all but a handpicked few from Alpha who did not participate the battle surviving.

Now, here was Beta Company. While training had improved to allow for more unit cooperation… Spartan-051 still had a sinking feeling in his stomach that this wouldn't change the results of the next battle, whatever it was. And with the UNSC accelerating the production of SPARTAN-III companies, it gave them all the less more time to train them up, to prepare them for their mission where they'd all likely die…

' _Spartan's never die..._ ' Kurt thought almost bitterly as he turned away from the hospital floor as he left the observation room, exiting out into the hallway. Upon leaving, he soon ran into none other than his former instructor, and now subordinate, Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez.

"Eltee," Mendez said, offering him a quick salute.

"Chief," Kurt said nodding as Mendez stood at ease. "Augmentation is underway..."

"And the Admiral has their mission," Mendez said, causing Kurt to blink.

" _Already_?" He asked, "I thought it would be at least a little while..."

"He accelerated it." The chief said, rolling his eyes slightly. "They've already found a good target, and wants them deployed the moment they're all combat ready."

Kurt sighed, as he walked down the hallway along with Mendez. "How the _hell_ did you deal with this, chief?" He asked, "I want them to survive as best they can… but these missions Ackerson's proposing-"

"Suicide missions. All of them." Mendez said nodding, "I can delay their deployment to that mission for a bit… Ackerson has a _slightly_ less suicidal mission, Operation: CARTWHEEL. But after that… it's out of the frying pan, and into the fire. I can get as many out as I can… but I can't get them all out. And as for the how… I just train them as best I can… there's not much else I can do after that."

"I know..." Kurt said, shaking his head. "I just wish there was… _something_ we could do. Give them a better chance than they already have. Some sort of edge."

Mendez was about to say something, however as they rounded another corner, they arrived just in time to see a brief golden sphere appear before them, before it dropped out a young human man with a blood-covered shirt, and a dead Jackal. "What the hell?!" Mendez shouted, as he and Kurt ran towards the figures.

Mendez first checked the alien. "Jackal's dead, bones crushed." He said, as he took away the Jackal's Needler and wrist shield.

"This guy's still alive." Kurt said, as he checked the pulse of the human. He then reached for the alarm, as he hit the medical alert as alarms sounded, sending medics to their position. "The hell did they come from though?!"

"Hell if I know..." Mendez said, before he picked up the strange silver object that the human had in his hands, looking like a strange L-shaped device with a glowing crystal at its center. "But this doesn't look Covenant..."

"Only one way to get answers..." Kurt said as a team of Medics arrived at their location, as Kurt lifted the young man up a and placed him on the stretcher. "Here's hoping he lives long enough to tell us."

* * *

 **California,**

 **September 19th 2015 AD**

* * *

A man in his mid to late twenties was looking over his laptop for the latest news on Halo 5: Guardians. Mostly the new characters, plus the return of other characters like Spartan Blue Team, the old team of John-117. He was dressed in a pair of tan shorts, a olive green army shirt, and brown tennis shoes.

This man was known on the internet, mostly Fanfiction, as Patriot-112. In real life, he was known as Drew Cobb, a humble, and currently unemployed, resident of Fresno County.

He was staying at his grandparents place, due to how hostile his mother was getting recently, but of course, that didn't mean, that she was not still driving him nuts.

He sighed as he brushed his short brown with his hand, his brown eyes narrowed a bit. He wished he could be something more than what he was now, but his laziness just stopped him from doing anything productive. Sure, he was good at history and writing, but he just wished that something would happen that would make more than just...him.

Before he can think any further, a large bang was heard on the roof, causing him to blink.

"What the hell?" he said, standing up and making his way outside. His grandparents were in Fresno right now, doing some shopping, meaning at the moment, he was home alone, with only his brother's Siberian Husky, Harley, who jumped from his position on the couch and looked at the door, growling, the hairs on his back standing on end.

"What is it, boy?" Drew said, patting the dog on the head to calm him a bit, before he started hearing something like chatter.

Feeling a chill go down his spine, he reached out and grabbed the bokken training sword and began walking outside, before telling Harley to stay put. He slowly opened the door and headed outside. He could now hear the chatter, and he blinked as it reminded him of Grunt talk from the Halo Games.

"Where the hell are we!?" said one squeaky voice.

"How should I know!?" said another, "We should look around, if we don't do anything the Elites will get angry,"

Drew blinked at that, "Elites?" he whispered, just something dropped from the roof in front of him making him stop in his tracks. His eyes widened as he saw, an honest to God, Grunt.

 _'What. The. Fuck!?'_ he thought, as the little alien looked around, sniffing the air, before fully turning towards him, and the aliens yellow eyes widened.

The two stared at each other for what felt like a few minutes, before...

"A HUMAN!" that snapped Drew out of it as he, in a speed he didn't he had, ran forward and clocked the Grunt upside the head, sending it sprawling on the ground, it's eyes rolled up into it's head. Drew then walked toward the Grunt and kicked it a couple times.

"You better be dead," he said before he heard a scream, and something dropped on his shoulders, making him lose his grip on the bokken.

"AW FUCK! GET OFF ME YOU LITTLE FREAK!" He yelled, as a second Grunt was on his back, and was now trying to get it, as the little alien began to hit him with something metallic.

"TAKE THAT HUMAN!" The Grunt screeched, hitting him on the head, until a bright light absorbed the two and the dead Grunt.

* * *

 **Desdoron**

 **January 12th, 2545 AD**

* * *

"FUCK! INCOMING!"

The colony world of Desdoron was under attack by the Covenant, as a fireteam of ODST of the 105th Shock Troops Division took cover from heavy Covvie plasma artillery fire. Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck cursed as he and his his team of ODST's found themselves pinned inside a building as Covenant Wraiths unleashed a wave of plasma mortars into the city.

"I thought the fly boys took care of the Wraiths!" Private William O'Brien shouted, pulling out his SRS99D-S2AM sniper rifle up to bear, looking out the window for any more Covenant ground troops.

"Well, it looks like the Covies had more!" Corporal Taylor H. Miles said, as he hefted up his M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle up, checking its power supply. "Fuck, I've only got one shot left for this thing."

"Then make it count when you use it," Master Sergeant Fernando Cortez said, sighing as he readied his own MA5C Assault Rifle. "Buck, any word from command yet?"

"No sir," Buck said, shaking his head. "It's all frantic as hell. And if its bad down here, its gotta be _worse_ up there."

"The navy'll hold e'm off as long as they can," Dutch said, "But we all know what's gonna be coming soon."

"Then we'd out to get the hell out of here while we-" O'Brien began to say as he peered through the scope of his Rifle before he blinked, "What the hell?"

Cortez glanced at O'Brien, moving up to him. "What do you see?" He asked.

"Civie, looks like he's fighting a Grunt." O'Brien said, as Cortez pulled out a set of binoculars, and saw indeed a few buildings away a human trying to yank off a Covenant Grunt off his back, along with a corpse of a dead Grunt not to far away.

Cortez cursed "Fuck, didn't they say they evacuated this area early?" He asked.

"Well either way, we're not leaving him behind, right?" Buck asked, as Cortez sighed, and nodded.

"Time to test your sniping skills, O'Brien." He said, as the ODST sniper nodded as he took aim.

* * *

With Drew, he was still trying to get the grunt off of him as it kept hitting him with the object.

 _'Now I know how Bruce Campbell felt!'_ he thought as he delivered a punch to the alien's mask, which resulted in it gasping, which made him guess that he broke it. Before he could capitalize on this, a loud crack was heard and the Grunt went flying off his back.

"OH SHIT!" he shouted, as he landed on his behind watching as the grunt landed on the ground, and the object falling out it's hands.

Drew used this moment to calm himself down, and then looked, noticing that he was not at home in Auberry anymore. In fact, it looked like he was in a city somewhere near the Rockies or the Alps, due to how VERY cold it was.

"Where the hell am I!?" he thought outloud, and then looked back to the dead grunt, and walked toward, seeing the object the little critter used to hit him he bent down and picked it up. Sone silver L-shaped object with a small yellow crystal in its center.

' _What the hell is-_ ' D.J began to think, before the Grunt once again crashed into him.

"Give back! That Mine!" The Grunt shouted, as he tried to wrestle the object out of D.J's grasp.

"Fuck you ya Gas sucker!" D.J shouted back as he tried to yank the object from out of the Unggoy's grasp. However, suddenly there was a loud _CRACK_ , followed by a vapor trail speeding by, hitting the Grunt in the head causing it to spray a blast of purplish/blue blood onto D.J as the Grunt fell over dead.

"FUCK ME!" he shouted as he looked around for where the shot came from, before taking cover by some rubble. "Shit...what now,"

However, he then felt something next and looked over and his eyes widened slightly at the body of another human. However it was what the human was wearing that got his attention as it was a UNSC Marine BDU with all the armor, and not that far away, was an MA5C assault rifle, the iconic favored weapon of the Master Chief.

"Damn...," was all he said, as he placed his fingers on the Marine's neck checking for a pulse, only to sigh sadly at having found none. His eyes then turned to the assault, and by instinct grabbed, before checking the weapon to see it was still functional. He then turned back, and saw his eyes were still open, before he closed them with his hand.

"I need this more than you, buddy,"

"Psst! Hey!" A voice called out, causing D.J to jump a bit before he followed the source. A few dozen meters away he could see a figure sticking out of one of the buildings. From the distance however, D.J was able to tell that they were wearing the oh-so iconic ODST Ballistic Armor.

"Holy shit dude," he said in a low whisper as he saw the armor, before the ODST spoke again.

"Come on, what are you waiting for, a written invitation or something!?"

D.J. decided to do what the man said, as he stood, and immediately bolted to where the ODST was, not stopping until he got there.

"Oh damn!" he said when he got there, "Thanks for the save,"

"Don't mention it, though why the _hell_ are you out here?" One of the ODST's said. "Didn't you get the whole 'Covenant attacking - flee for your lives' memo?"

"I uhh..." D.J said, not exactly sure what to say. He was able to deduce quickly that someway and somehow, he was in the Halo Universe, and those were _real_ ODST's in front of him, and that was a _real_ Grunt that tried to kill him. So he obviously couldn't tell them he was from Earth, let alone Earth from the 21st century.

So, he improvised.

"My… family lived out in the mountains," He said, "We… didn't hear anything about the evacuation… then the Covenant showed up… the rest of my family's… gone. I tried getting to the city, to get out of here, but… those damn aliens jumped me."

"Shit..." The ODST muttered, "Sorry to hear that kid, but it looks like you're in luck though. Me and my boys are about to radio in a pickup and get off planet before the Covenant decide to say screw it and glass the planet."

"Assuming the Covenant don't kill us before they arrive," Another ODST said, his voice sounding a bit more familiar to D.J causing him to blink.

' _Wait, is that…?_ ' he thought, as the first ODST continued speaking.

"Radio in for that Pelican, Buck." He said, "Now we've got a civilian here, we need to get him - and us - out of here while we still can."

"Got it." Buck said, as he touched his helmet. "Command, this is Alpha-Nine, 7th Shock Troops Battalion. Requesting immediate evac. Be advised, we have a civilian survivor here."

Buck paused for a moment, as D.J silently wished he could hear whatever Command was saying. "Yes sir, we're near the outskirts of Tarka City, hold up in an old building." He said, before pausing again, and then let out a tired sigh. "Understood. Alpha-Nine out." He turned to the other ODST. "They said there's a good LZ a few klicks south of our position, near the outer city plaza. But we're gonna have to hoof it if we're gonna get to that Pelican in time."

"Is it that bad?" The taller ODST said, once again in a voice D.J recognized.

"Fleet's falling back..." Buck said, "They're rounding up as many transports they can, and protect what they can… but we need to get off on the next pelican, or we can kiss our sorry asses goodbye."

"I agree with that, one hundred percent, sir," said D.J. as he cocked the MA5C ready , making sure his finger was off the trigger, which didn't go unnoticed by the ODSTs. "What? I owned a few guns before these assholes showed,"

"Just keep your head down, kid." Cortez said, as he pulled out his own rifle. "We're getting you out of here, one way or another." He peaked outside, and seeing no Covenant he motioned the others forward. "Come on, let's go!" He said, as he and Dutch were the first out, followed by D.J with Buck and O'Brien right behind.

All the while, D.J. was thinking on how he got here and how to get back home.

* * *

 **UNSC _Hopeful_**

 **With Jordan**

* * *

After what felt like an eternity, Jordan finally began to feel his senses again as he groaned. ' _Fuck me..._ ' he thought, 'That _was the weirdest dream I have ever had in my life..._ '

Jordan's eyes opened, before they immediately closed from the light in his face. "Stupid light..." he muttered, "I thought my lamp… was… " However, when his eyes reopened to push the lamp to the side, he glanced around and froze. This was _not_ his room. If anything, it looked as if he were in a lab. He was on some kind of stretcher in the middle of the room, surrounded by several pieces of medical equipment, some he knew, others he hadn't the foggiest.

"What… the… fuck..." He muttered before he sat upright, glancing around. "How the hell did I get _here?!_ "

' _Okay… calm down Jordan..._ ' I thought to myself. ' _You were walking home from the library, you met that…_ thing _that looked like a Jackal from Halo, bright light and then… here..._ ' He facepalmed. ' _Is it possible to be knocked out while you're dreaming?_ '

What Jordan didn't know however, was that he was being watched from just outside the one-way window. Standing there were three individuals, those being Kurt, Mendez, and a woman who looked to be in her mid to late thirties with short ear length blonde hair, green eyes and wearing a lab coat. And lying before them on a table was all of the items that the young man had with him.

One of the first things that struck Kurt as odd was how old the tech was. Most of it looked as if it were from the 21st century, including pieces of technology that was 500 years old… and yet it looked almost as if it just came out of the stores. Including a laptop computer, a Microsoft Xbox One, and even an Apple Iphone. There was also the ID that he had on him, which indicated he was born in the early _1990's_.

That was odd in itself… but then they saw what _else_ he had in his backpack and in the laptop case. Books, Comics, video games, all of them possessing the same title of 'Halo' on them, but most disturbingly was that most of the images showed pictures of men wearing MJOLNIR armor variants, and ODST BDU's. But it became even _more_ confusing, when they discovered a book which had two figures in MJOLNIR armor, and another in SPI armor, titled 'Ghosts of Onyx'.

"What the hell is this…?" Mendez muttered, as he read through the first few chapters of the book. "Its talking about… _everything_. The SPARTAN-III's being founded, you ending up with the program, your assassination of Robert Watts… hell, it even tells us how Operation: TORPEDOE is going to end!"

"Yet it's all displayed like its… fictional." Kurt said, as he tried to wrap his head around what he was seeing. "The Insurrection… the SPARTAN-II's… the Human-Covenant War... how can this be right?"

"Well gentlemen..." the woman said, with a bit of a british accent. "There seems to be only one possible solution… as unlikely as it seems… he's from a different universe where, apparently… ours is a science fiction series to them."

"If I wasn't looking at this right now, I'd be calling you insane, Dr. Allannah." Mendez said, as he kept looking through the book, before he sighed as he put it down. "Fuck… if this is as accurate as its being… only two Spartan's survive TORPEDOE..."

"This… isn't something we'd expect..." Kurt said, shaking his head. "All of this information… " he glanced at Mendez and the Doctor, "No matter what though, Ackerson must _not_ learn about this."

"Taken care of," Mendez said, as the doctor nodded. "We dumped the Jackal's body into space, and the doctors swore secrecy on the matter. No one knows he's here… for now at least." He then looked back inside, as he saw Jordan wondering around in the room. "Question now is… what to do with _him_?"

Kurt sighed, as he massaged his forehead a bit as he considered the options. "We can't keep him here indefinitely." He said, "Someone will notice him… but we can't exactly let him leave, he knows _way_ too much not just about our programs, but about the _future itself_. If ONI somehow tracks him down..."

"Damned if we do, damned if we don't..." Mendez muttered, before Doctor Erika Allannah's datapad beeped as she turned it on.

"Ah, there it is." She said.

"What?" Kurt asked.

"I took the liberty of getting a sample of his blood," She said, "Just to run a few tests, see if he is human and such..." she glanced through the contents of the data, before she paused... and then smiled. "Well… here's our answer."

Mendez and Kurt both blinked "Answer to what?" The Lieutenant Commander asked, before the doctor showed him the results, and Kurt's eyes widened a bit. "I see… well that's _another_ option at least." He then turned and headed for the door.

"What are you doing?" Mendez asked.

"We're gonna need some answers out of him," Kurt said, "Get things from his perspective… and then I'm giving him the only chance he's got to get off this ship alive."

* * *

 **Meanwhile - Desdoron**

 **Tarka City Plaza**

* * *

"Oh son of a bitch."

D.J would have to agree with O'Brien's assessment, as the ODST's had taken cover within another building in the Tarka city plaza, which gave them an excellent view of the area… and how many Covenant were there. And it wasn't just a few Grunts and Jackals, but even D.J could see a handful of the deadly Elites among their numbers as well. As well as a pair of Type-26 "Shade" Anti-Vehicle turrets as well.

"Of all the places for us to make an LZ… it's in the middle of a Covenant Platoon." Dutch groaned, as they observed the situation. "What's the ETA on that bird?"

"Seven minutes." Buck said, looking at his watch. "Give or take. But we don't have the time to warn them about the LZ, we're either leaving here, or not at all."

"Shit..." Cortez muttered, "We're gonna have to do this quick then… Dutch, O'Brien, you two take out those AA Guns, Buck, you're with me, we'll move in and try to flank them before they know we're here. O'Brien, keep us covered up here, but make sure they don't remain that last turret."

"What about me?" D.J asked, getting attention drawn from the others.

" _You_ are staying here." Cortez said, "Dutch and O'Brien will keep you safe, just keep your head down, and don't try anything stupid."

D.J. sighed, as he kneeled on the on the ground placing his borrowed MA5C on his leg.

"Crystal, Sarge," he said, "I'd wish you guys good luck, but...you already got the Devil's Luck,"

Cortez smirked slightly behind his visor, as he and Buck stood up. "Just stay tight, this'll be over before ya know it." He said, as the two of them left the building.

The two ODST's descended down the small flight of stairs before reaching the ground level, where they crouched and silently moved towards the Covenant from below, sticking to whatever cover they could find as they did their best to go unnoticed. From above, the other ODST's looked down, before Dutch pulled out his Spartan Laser, and took aim.

" _On my mark… fire._ " Cortez informed on the radio, as he and Dutch managed to get behind the Covenant.

"All set here." Dutch said, as O'Brien nodded.

" _Alright… three… two… one… Mark!_ " Cortez shouted, as Dutch charged his Laser, and a blast of red energy shot from out of the weapon, scoring an easy hit against the AA turret, blasting it to pieces as O'Brien fired his sniper rifle, which quickly killed the Covenant Grunt manning the second turret. In all of the confusion, as the Covenant tried to figure out where the fire came from, Buck and Cortez lobbed one grenade each towards the aliens. One Grunt noticed the grenades, and began shouting a warning, but it was too late as he and several of his brethren were sent flying in pieces of flesh and shrapnel. The blast was strong enough that an Elite Minor lost his shield, making him easy picking as O'Brien fired another shot from his rifle, killing the Elite with a headshot.

" _Now_ we're talking!" Dutch said, as he discarded his now powerless laser, and pulled out his MA5C and began firing down below, providing suppressive fire, as O'Brien continued to snipe at targets of opportunity.

Down below, Buck and Cortez fired their own assault rifles at the Covenant, keeping the enemies on their toes as they fired from cover. "Come on, eat some of this!" Buck shouted, firing his rifle into an group of Grunts panicking away.

"Keep the pressure on!" Cortez shouted as he lobbed another grenade forward, "Don't give them any - FUCK! SPECTRE!"

As the Sergeant said, a single Covenant Type-46 Infantry Support Vehicle had arrived on the scene, as two more Elite soldiers stepped off of it, and the gunner on the plasma turret opened fire on Buck and Cortez's position, forcing them to duck for cover.

"Shit!" Dutch shouted, "O'Brien, take it down!"

"Last shot..." O'Brien said, as he took aim with his sniper rifle, as the Spectre's gunner opened fire on Buck and Cortez's position. "Goodnight ass-" however a beam of energy shot past O'Brien's head, causing him to duck. "Fuck! enemy sniper!"

D.J peaked from his own spot, looking where the shot came from as he spotted a Jackal Skirmisher on top of a garage complex. "Up there! Top floor, the garage!"

O'Brien nodded as he raised out from the cover, aiming his rifle as he took the shot, His aim was true, as D.J watched the Jackal skirmisher take the shot square in the head, before it fell down to the ground.

"Great, but how do we take out that Spectre?" Dutch asked, looking down where Buck and Cortez were still pinned.

D.J cursed as he looked around the Plaza, looking for something they can use to their advantage… that was when he spotted what seemed to be an M12 LRV equipped with the M41 LAAG. It appeared banged up, but still functional.

"I found the solution!" he shouted and then began to bolt across the plaza toward the Warthog.

"What the- NO! SHIT!" O'Brien cursed as he saw D.J. begin to bolt to the downed warthog, "Boss problem!"

" _Can it WAIT?!_ " Cortez shouted, as he peaked over his cover, only to duck from the Plasma fire.

"The Kid left!" He shouted, "He's going towards a Hog!"

" _WHAT?!_ " Cortez shouted, " _What the hell does he think he's doing?!_ "

D.J reached the bottom of the stairs, as he ran towards the Warthog. Thankfully the Covenant were so focused on the others they didn't notice him reach the famous Halo vehicle, as he climbed up onto the back. "Okay… how does this work..." he muttered before he noticed the two pedals on the bottom of the turret, he pressed them as he discovered the controlled the direction of the turret. "Alright! Now, safety off… pull the lever back..." He adjusted the turret towards the Spectre. "Eat lead!" He shouted, before he opened fire as the LAAG unleashed a loud roar of fire as 12.7x99mm armor penetrating rounds shot out of the weapon.

The fire impacted against the Elite machine, as the driver backed the Spectre away as the gunner adjusted his fire towards the Warthog.

"Shit!" D.J cursed as he was about to duck for cover, but then the Warthog lurched forward as it began speeding away, as D.J in surprise grappled onto the Chaingun.

"You've got guts Kid, I'll give ya that!" D.J blinked as he looked at the driver seat, where Dutch was currently behind the wheel, with O'Brien in the passenger seat. "Not many brains, but plenty of guts! Now fire that gun and kill that Spectre!"

"With pleasure," he said as he aimed the gun at the Covenant, "By the way, I'm 26 years old just to let you know."

With that he opened fire back on the Spectre, scoring hits along it's entire chassis. The Spectre sped up as it chased after the warthog as the two vehicles began driving around one another across the Plaza, trying to get a good shot out of the other.

"Well… at least it's not shooting at _us_ now." Buck said as he and Cortez move out of their cover to get a better firing position on the Spectre.

" _Alpha Niner, this is Bravo Six Twenty, you copy over?_ " A voice spoke in Buck's headset, as he turned on the Comm.

"Bravo Six Twenty, this is Alpha Niner!" He responded, "We're at the LZ, but be advised; LZ is hot!"

" _Rodger that Alpha-Nine, we're coming in._ " Came the response before the sounds of a D77-TC Pelican dropship was heard in the distance. " _Stand clear._ "

No sooner than that, Cortez and Buck looked up as the Pelican Dropship lowered down towards the Plaza, as its chin-mounted 70mm Chaingun pointed down towards where the Spectre was. " _Going loud!_ " The pilot announced, before it unleashed a hail of rounds towards the enemy vehicle, the superior caliber rounds virtually turning the Covenant transport into nothing but shredded metal as it exploded in a brilliant blue blast.

"Whoa shit!" D.J. shouted as the Pelican continued to take out the other Covenant troops. While the aliens tried to bring the Dropship down, their small armed plasma pistols and rifles didn't pack the punch to do any substantial damage to the dropship, as the Pelican - combined with D.J behind the gun of the Warthog - mowed down the Covenant ground troops, until the only ones left were hastily running grunts.

" _Area's clear - putting her down._ " The Pelican pilot said, as the dropship moved to a hovering position in the center of the Plaza, its troop hatch opening up as the Warthog drove up next to it as Cortez and Buck approached.

D.J sighed as he let go of the machine gun, before he allowed himself to climb off of the Hog. He was soon confronted by Cortez, who had a bit of a disapproving look, causing D.J to sigh.

"I know, I know." He said, "It was stupid and suicidal for me to do that, and I could've gotten myself killed. But the way I saw it, I either helped you guys or we'd all get screwed if they shot down the Pelican with that Spectre."

Cortez sighed, as he rubbed his forehead, "Yes, you're right." He said, "It was irresponsible, stupid and reckless… if not pretty damn balsy."

D.J. just shrugged, "Someone has to do it," he said, before the ODSTs laughed at that, while Cortez just shook his head, and soon the ODST team, and their extra package and the Pelican lifted off the ground, closing it's rear hatch and floated over and picked up the Warthog. Best not to waste a good piece of UNSC hardware afterall.

D.J meanwhile sighed as he relaxed into the passenger seat of the Pelican as it flew up into the sky. "To… close..." he said.

"I heard that," O'Brien said chuckling, "Crazy stunt you pulled out there…stupid, but crazy."

"Uhh… thanks?" D.J said unsure, causing some of the ODST's to laugh a bit.

"Hang on boys, we're heading for the _Andraste_ now." The pilot of the pelican said, as their Dropship continued to rise up into space.

D.J stood up as he headed for the rear hatch, as he looked out the rear window. He watched with a bit of wonder, as he saw the planet below from space, as he could see the city in the distance as they rose away from it.

However that soon changed as he saw the familiar organic like style of a Covenant _ORS_ -class Heavy cruiser. D.J. knew in his gut what was about to happen next as it fired it's energy projector, and began the glassing of the planet below. D.J watched as the beams of energy hit the city, as building crumbled to ashes as the blasts burned the surface. It was soon joined by more beams as additional covenant vessels including destroyers, battle cruisers and frigates all began a series of crisscrossing orbits over the area, firing their plasma weapons down to ensure every last millimeter was burned.

And deep down, D.J knew that there were likely still millions of people still down there, helpless to do anything against the genocide of the Covenant. His fists clenched tightly as the glassing continued until he finally spoke

"I've decided," he said, causing the ODSTs to look at him.

"Decided what?" said O'Brien.

"I'm enlisting,"

Cortez and the other ODST's all shared a look "You… sure about that, kid?" Dutch asked, "This isn't something you should-"

"I just watched a planet - _my home_ get glassed." He said, looking back at them. "Everyone I've ever known, everything I've loved… is gone. I've got nothing else left… but I'll be _damned_ before I just roll over and _let_ this shit keep happening!"

Cortez looked at the young man. He could see that spark inside of him, telling him he wasn't gonna change his mind from this. He sighed as he took off his helmet.

"Well kid..." he said, "If you _are_ committed… I guess we can at least help get you started. Once we get to Reach, I'll help get you to a recruiter, but from there… well, I wish you the best of luck kid."

"As long as I do something to make a damn difference. That's alright with me," he said looking back out the window. He then blinked as he remembered the item he picked off the Unggoy and took it out of his pocket to inspect it.

 _'That little gas sucker was really desperate to get this back from me,'_ he thought to himself, as he examined the device, noting it had a Forerunner style.

"Hey, what you got there?" Buck asked, noticing the object.

D.J shrugged "No idea," he admitted, "One of those Grunts had it… no idea what it is though..."

Cortez hmmed, as D.J handed him the object, inspecting it. "It's not Covenant..." he said, "But it sure as hell ain't human… you said the Grunts had it?"

"Yeah..." D.J said, "So… ideas on what to do with it?"

Cortez hummed in thought at this, before his eyes widened in realization.

"I think I know the person who can help find out what this is," he said, and D.J. had a very good idea, but kept mum at the moment, instead taking a confused look.

"Who?"

"Someone we met after a… Classified mission." Cortez said, as he pocketed the item. "I'll get it to her, don't worry… though once we're onboard the _Andraste_ … it'll be a while before we get to Reach." He then smirked slightly, causing D.J to gulp. "Might as well give you a taste what the Marine life's gonna be like for ya..."

 _'What the fuck did I get myself into?'_

* * *

 ** _With Jordan_**

* * *

 _'Ugh, I'm getting_ bored _,'_ was the one thought going through Jordan's mind. He had been sitting in the strange operating room, trying to figure out someway out. When that failed, he tried to find a means to entertain himself until someone came to see him or let him out. And he was running out of things to do, from randomly singing '100 bottles of Root beer on the wall', to finding a bunch of random small items he could find and juggle them around. ' _Where's my 3DS when I need it..._ '

"*SIgh*... twenty one bottles of root beer on the wall, twenty one bottles of root beer..." He sang, "Take one down, pass it around, twenty bottles of root beer on the wall..."

Before he could continue onto the next verse, the door to the room _finally_ opened up, causing Jordan to sit up as one man walked inside. And he was… well, _very_ tall, roughly seven feet if Jordan had to guess, and had the build of an Olympian Athlete, with short crew cut brown hair, and hazel colored eyes. "Sorry to keep you waiting," the man said, "Had to get a few things prepared… plus, got you this." He then placed down a plate of food in front of Jordan.

Jordan glanced at the food, his stomach rumbling, since he felt like he hadn't eaten anything in _days_. But he was still a bit cautious at the man standing before him, glancing between the food and him.

The man sighed, shaking his head "If we wanted you dead or interrogated, we'd of done it already." He said, pushing the plate towards him. "Its safe."

He still didn't look very trusting… but his hunger was winning him over, as he accepted the tray of food, and after a few experimental bites, he began eating everything on the plate. "So… do you mind telling us, who you are?"

"Judging from the fact I don't have my wallet or any of my stuff, you already know who I am." Jordan said. "Jordan Tackett, from South Carolina… and I'm still trying to convince myself I'm having a very vivid dream right now."

The man chuckled, before bringing up a chair.

"I would be too, in your position," the man said, "Considering that I'm a character of science fiction in your 21st Century,"

Jordan froze for a moment, glancing at the man for a few seconds. "Wait..." he said, "Who…?"

"Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose… or Kurt-051." The man confirmed, as the young man's eyes widened at the revelation. "I admit… me and the Chief were a bit… perplexed when we saw your books… I hope you can help fill in a few gaps, mainly… how the hell you got here with a Covenant Jackal."

Jordan blinked, before he sighed "Its… well, its not a _long_ story, but its an… odd one." He said. "I was walking home from the library, having helped my friend with a Halo event there… next thing I know, a fucking Jackal appears from nowhere, I attack it, get shot, killed it… and then I wake up here."

"Do you recognize this?" Kurt asked as he pulled out a small device from his pocket, as Jordan recognized it as the thing the Jackal was carrying.

"Yeah." he said nodding, "I think its Forerunner…"

"Forerunner?" Kurt asked confused.

"You obviously haven't gotten too deep into my stuff then," Jordan said with a light chuckle, "To put it simply… the Forerunners are an ancient alien race from 100,000 years ago, who populated the galaxy. After they killed themselves by firing a superweapon called the Halo Array to cleanse the galaxy of sentient life to defeat a galaxy spreading zombie plague called the Flood, they reseeded life across the galaxy. The Covenant worship the Forerunners as gods, and believe humans are an affront to their Gods… which is really the exact opposite, since the Forerunners put something within our DNA called a Geas which grants us near full access to Forerunner ruins, since they wanted humanity to become the inheritors of the 'Mantle of Responsibility'. The Prophets of the Covenant figured this out, and fearing their entire empire would collapse if this became public knowledge, sealed this information away, and claimed Humanity must be exterminated in order to preserve their idea of a 'Great Journey'."

Kurt looked at Jordan with an almost dumbfounded expression. "And… I just blew your mind, didn't I?" Jordan asked.

"... in a matter of speaking..." Kurt said, sighing as he fought off a migraine. "This was… not what I was expecting… "

"Neither were the fans," Jordan said sighing, "And there's still more coming… Halo 5 was about to get released, and it just raised a _whole lot_ more questions about humans and the forerunners and a lot of other things. And _then_ there's gonna be a Halo 6 coming out sometime even later. Not to mention the books that haven't been released yet."

"Though I guess we come to the big question though." He said, "What happens to me? You have all of my stuff after all… don't exactly need me."

Kurt, having recovered from the mind-blowing information straightened himself out, "Well, that's not true." He said, "Right now… you have a decision to make. At this time, no one in ONI outside of myself, Chief Mendez and Doctor Allannah. While we can try to hide you from Ackerson and ONI… it wouldn't be long before they found you, and interrogated you. And you of all people would know what they'd do to someone with so much information like you." Jordan gulped before he continued, "So… that leaves us with only one _viable_ option if you want to get out of this place alive."

Kurt pulled out what looked like a UNSC Navy uniform, presenting it to Jordan. He looked at it, and first he noticed the rank pin for a Petty Officer second Class… and the nametag which read 'JORDAN-B000'.

"Holy shit!" Jordan shouted, as he backed away in surprise. "Sir… are… are you telling me…?"

"Yes." Kurt said nodding as he sighed, "Jordan… the information you have in your head there is invaluable to the UNSC, and our galaxy as a whole… but the knowledge you have can help me too… help me save my SPARTAN-III's from the same fate they faced in your books. I want you to help me turn them from lives being wasted at Ackerson's command… to _real_ Spartans. You have all of the genetic markers to become a Spartan… and not just a III, but a II. While your… age would've initially caused problems, thanks to lessons learned from the initial SPARTAN-II augmentation myself and the others went through, along with Alpha Company, and the few second class Spartan-II's… we can, with some degree of certainty, safely give you the same augments they all went through. I can't promise you that you'd survive… but it's better than no chance at all."

"But what about my-" Jordan said but Kurt raised his hand.

"We will engineer a false background for you," he said, "We'll come up with a story where you were selected as a… prototype for future SPARTAN-III's with II-grade augments. And as for your stuff… we'll find a safe place to hide it, until you need it. The question now is… are you in?"

Jordan was quiet for a few moments, as he considered his options. He wasn't the most skilled fighter he admitted, most of his 'combat' experience stems from video games or when he'd play airsoft with his friends. He never considered himself a soldier, let along a _Spartan_.

But, not only did he not have much other choice… this was a chance to rectify that concept. He was here, in the Halo Universe. He had the potential to save so many lives, and while some may seem like small victories at first… sometimes the smallest changes can cause the biggest of impacts later on. Plus… the chance of becoming a super soldier easily outweighed the idea of being captured by ONI.

"Let's do it."

* * *

 **117Jorn: And the tale of two soldiers begin!**

 **Patriot-112: Yup! One a Spartan, the other a Marine.**

 **117Jorn: And with the wealth of Halo information in their heads, and their upcoming training, hopefully they'll be able to survive long enough to see the end of the Halo series. But until next time…**

 **Both: Ja Ne!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I do not own the Halo Franchise by any means. Also, if you like fics like these, I highly recommend you reading 'Kyle 091' by general MB, and 'Into the Fire' by .515. Both are exceptionally good fics, and have inspired myself and Patriot-112 to write this fanfic. Please enjoy :D**

* * *

 **Sector K-009, UNSC _Hopeful_ , **

**February 15th 2545 AD**

* * *

Jordan sighed as he cranked his neck a bit, stepping into the operating room of the UNSC _Hopeful_ wearing a hospital gown. ' _Here goes nothing..._ ' he thought. It had been a whole day since he made his decision to join Beta Company, and today was the day that he was going to undergo the augmentation process.

"You certainly look nervous," A voice said, as Jordan looked to the left where Dr. Allannah stood. "Not that I don't blame you."

"I know how the II's got augmented, and how 30 died in the process." Jordan said, looking at the table. "While I _do_ trust the professionals… I'm still pretty… skeptical about this… but there's no turning back now I guess."

"If it makes you feel any better, I helped Dr. Halsey perform the augmentations on the first SPARTAN-II's." Allannah said reassuringly. "I'm probably one of the most qualified to perform this. And as we told you before, we've made improvements since then."

"Doesn't help much..." He said, as he sat up onto the table. "Well… let's get this over with."

The doctor nodded as she pulled out a large syringe filled with liquid. "This will sedate you for a while," she said, "You shouldn't feel any pain during this."

"Let's just get this over with before I develop Aichmophobia." Jordan said, gulping a bit before the Doctor injected the syringe into his system. At first he felt a small sting, but then his word began to get woozy and trippy. "Here… whoa..." He said, before all he could see was blackness.

* * *

 **UNSC _Andraste_ \- En-Route to Reach**

 **February 14th, 2545 AD**

* * *

D.J. was breathing heavily from the 'training' he went through by Cortez. Of course, he would've complained, but he was not stupid to talk to a well trained soldier like an ODST. Didn't mean he had to like to like it though.

The good points to the training helped him to lose his damn gut, and he gained a lean build, with muscle development in his arms. At the very least, being trained by ODST's prepared him for what was to come.

"Good news, Kid." Cortez said, as he entered his quarters on the _Andraste_. "We're just a half hour away from Reach. I've got you booked for a Pelican to New Alexandria to meet up with the recruitment station there."

"Right… thanks for this, sir." D.J said.

"It was nothing, kid," the ODST said with a wave of his hand, "Just try to deal with the Drill Sergeant's yelling, okay,"

D.J. nodded at that, "Don't worry, I know it's their job to make men into Marines," he said, "If anyone is worse at yelling, it'd my crazy mother,"

Cortez placed a hand on D.J.'s shoulder, "I'm sure she was trying to make you think," he said, and became confused by the deadpanned expression on D.J.'s face.

"Oh sure, by punching me upside the head, pulling a kitchen knife out and threatening me and my older brother with it, and driving us crazy at every turn," he said, "Yeah, that's making us think, alright. Make us think she was FUCKING NUTS!"

"Not all families are perfect," Cortez said shrugging, "Just be glad you spent as much time as you did with them before… well, you know."

D.J. nodded at that, remembering his Desdoron backstory.

"It's alright, Sarge," he said, "I'll always remember my time on Desdoron. But, I also know I need to move on at some point, once I give the Covenant a good beating that is,"

"You and over half the UNSC, Kid." Cortez said nodding, "Well, best get what stuff you _do_ have packed up - we'll be entering orbit in half hour, make sure your ass is on that Pelican by 0900."

"Copasetic, sarge," D.J. said, and went to get what stuff he DID have with him, as Cortez left him alone.

"I gotta admit it, Cortez. Even though he isn't a Marine yet, he could make a great ODST," said Dutch as he came up beside the Master Sergeant. "If what we saw on Desdoron was anything to go by."

"He's still green… but he's got the potential." Cortez said, "He must've had a family with a military background… I tried looking him up though, but I couldn't find any information on him… I'm assuming he lost most of his personal information on Desdoron when the Covies glassed it - I'll have some friends help him patch up a workable ID so he can properly enlist… once we get planetside though, I'm gonna pay a visit to ONI Sword Base, give the good Doctor that alien thing he recovered."

"You make it sound pretty important," Dutch said, as Cortez sighed.

"I don't know, Dutch..." He said, "I've got a funny feeling about this though… it reminded me of some of the artifacts we found at Heian with Cal - I mean Spartan-141."

"Yeah, now that you mention it..." Dutch said, as they continued walking. "How is she doing, anyways?"

"Last I heard, she's still recovering." Cortez said, as he chuckled a bit. "A big ape nearly caved her head in, and she _still_ won't go down… she's damn lucky O'Brien stopped that big ape from getting a direct hit on her… kid didn't leave her side on the trip back home."

"Yeah..." Dutch said. "With the way the war's going… we need all the Spartan's we can get."

* * *

 **February 25th 2545**

 **Sector K-009, UNSC _Hopeful_**

* * *

Jordan didn't expect to dream when in a drug-induced slumber. But that was what he was doing, when he found himself in the middle of a grassy field, going on for as far as his eyes could see. He walked forward, aimlessly as he tried to piece together where he was.

" _Reclaimer..._ "

The soft voice echoed around him, as Jordan spun around, trying to find the source. "Hello?" He called out. "Who's there?"

" _Inheritor..._ "

The same voice spoke again, but he could still not identify where it was coming from. "Who are you?!" He shouted, "Where are you?!"

" _You… are the inheritor of Mantle…_ "

" _You are the inheritor… **of all their sins...**_ "

The last voice however sent a dark chill down Jordan's spine, as the once vibrant red skies transformed into a ghastly yellow with spores gently falling from the skies. " ** _From end to end of this galaxy, most are blinded! All life dies, all worlds too, and if there is guaranteed perpetual existence, after that - what does it matter how the end comes?_** "

Behind Jordan, a Flood infection form creeped behind him, before it jumped up latching onto him, and the last thing Jordan felt was pain, and the last thing he heard was the Gravemind's voice.

" ** _Ashes to Ashes… Dust to Dust… the casket will open, an I will rise again!_** "

* * *

Jordan awoke with a start as he practically leaped upright, panting and in cold sweat. ' _What… what the HELL was that?!_ ' he thought.

"Oh, your awake!" He heard the voice of Doctor Allannah, before she walked in front of him, as he checked his forehead. "Are you alright? I was worried something went wrong with the augmentations, but it seemed you were dreaming… "

He shook his head "Dream? No… more like a nightmare… " He said.

"Do… you want to talk about it?" The doctor asked, with a bit of concern on her face. But Jordan again shook his head.

"No… no, I'm fine. Its nothing." He reassured, "So… I'm guessing the Augmentation process Is over now?"

The doctor didn't look 100% convinced, but she sighed before nodding. "Yes… we needed to put you in a temporary medically-induced coma, but all of the augmentations have been applied to you successfully." She informed. "I suggest you take it slow though for a week or two, as you get adjusted to your… _changes._ "

Jordan nodded, before he looked at a mirror on the opposite side of the room, before he blinked. He almost didn't recognize himself. Gone was any traces of fat on his body, replaced by nothing but raw muscle that bodybuilders from the 21st century would _kill_ to obtain. He looked like an Olympian athlete! He slowly got off the table, as he stood up to his full height - as he was no longer a mere 5'11, but now stood over seven feet tall. "Whoa..." he muttered, scratching the back of his head, before he felt something metallic. "Wait, is that-"

"Your neural implant, yes." Allannah confirmed, nodding. "Its standard issue in the UNSC, though yours is slightly more advance, a prototype for the ones which will be given to the SPARTAN-II's when the MJOLNIR V becomes available."

"Ah… wait, does that mean an A.I could…?" Jordan asked, pointing to his head.

"In theory yes, but it hasn't been tried… on a human yet at least." She said, "But, that is something we can deal with later."

"Kay..." He said, before he felt a strange feeling on his neck, before he rubbed it, feeling something solid around it. "Wait, did you put one of those Platinum pellet things in my neck that suppresses my…?"

The doctor giggled a bit "Yes, but don't worry about it too much." She said, "We've learned lessons from the initial trials, the new procedure yours has won't cause the same side-effects. Might actually improve it..." She muttered as an afterthought.

"Wait, what was that last part?" Jordan asked, but the Doctor shook her head.

"Nothing! Nothing..." she said, waving her hands before the door to the room opened, as Kurt stepped inside.

"Good to see you awake… Spartan." Kurt said with a small smile, before turning to the Doctor. "How is he?"

"Everything should be fine now, Lieutenant Commander." She said, looking at a clipboard. "But as I suggested with the rest of Beta, he should take it easy for a week or two, let him get adjusted to his new self."

"Fair enough." Kurt said, turning back to Jordan. "Once you get suited up, meet Mendez in the armory. He'll run you a refresher course, get you accustomed to UNSC gear, martial arts and such. Don't forget to take five protein meals a day for the next few weeks, yada yada yada… "

"You got it, sir." Jordan said, before he stood at attention and saluted Kurt. "And… thank you, again for this."

Kurt smirked slightly, before he returned the gesture. "Dismissed, Spartan B000."

* * *

Several days passed by, as Jordan slowly got up to speed with his augmentations. He was quickly starting to love the new him, for not only was he faster and stronger, his now-augmented brain was able to process and learn information even faster than normal, and after a few hours in the armory with Mendez, he had already mastered the basic firearms of the UNSC. And following military protocol and discipline wasn't too difficult, having a small bit of lessons from his grandfather who served in the US military during Korea, and already had a general idea on everything else from movies like Jarheads, Black Hawk Down, Act of Valor, and the Halo universe of course.

During most of this time though, he was isolated from the other Spartan-III's as he recovered, eating his five protein meals a day in private in his quarters. But that was all about to change today, as Jordan was running on the treadmill at speeds he never thought possible for a human, while listening to the music on his 'Tychon' - apparently the 26th century equivalent to the Iphone. He had most of his music from his old phone downloaded onto it, along with some movies, show and such - anything _not_ halo related, the only exception being the music from Halo.

"...only the strongest will survive," he sung to himself as he ran. "Lead me to heaven when we die… I am the shadow on the wall, I'll be the one to save us all..."

As he continued to run, he didn't notice seven people entering the rec room. Four men, and three women. When they stepped inside, they immediately noticed the single man inside.

"Hey… who's that?" One of the girls asked, who had short crew cut red hair and blue eyes, gesturing towards him. Her uniform having the rank of a petty officer second class, followed by the number 'B312'.

"I don't know..." said the black haired boy, who shared the same rank, and had the number B292 on his uniform. "But… he doesn't look like a Marine..."

"If I didn't know any better, he looked like a Spartan..." The other girl who also had black hair, with the number B320 on her suit. "Could he be from Alpha?"

"He can't - look, his uniform's from beta!" The third girl, and the shortest out of them said, indicating the numbers on Jordan's back. "B000?"

"Since when did we have a B000?" The second man, this one with short crew-cut brown hair said, with the numbers B170. "I'd think we'd remember someone with that number."

"You think he's a late entry?" said a boy, with the nametag B091.

"Could be..." The next boy with the ID of 004 said.

The last individual, who had the numbers B174 narrowed his eyes slightly before he walked towards the man, who seemed to ignore them as he kept running on the treadmill. "Excuse me?" He asked. However Jordan kept on running. "Excuse me!" HE said again, but again Jordan didn't hear then.

"HEY!" He shouted as he yanked the earphones out of Jaden's ears. However the sudden loss of the music suprised Jordan as he stopped running… but the Treadmill kept going as he fell face-forward, and the Treadmill sent him _flying_ backwards from the speed it was going "SON OF A BITCH!" He shouted, as he was sent careening into the wall.

The other six winced as they saw their fellow SPARTAN slam into the wall.

"You're in trouble now, Min," said the B170 Spartan as Jordan groaned from his position on the floor.

"Mother… Fucker..." Jordan muttered, as he sat back up, "You could've TAPPED MY SHOULDER you know?!"

"S-Sorry!" Min said, as Jordan stood back up to his feet.

"Seriously… son of..." He muttered, before he looked at them, and noticed the numbers on their own uniforms. "Wait… you guys from Beta Company?"

"Yeah." The one with B292 said as he stepped forward, "We saw the number on your uniform, but… we don't remember there being a B000… so, who are you?"

"Well, Uh… well, I guess it was inevitable I'd meet you all." Jordan said chuckling a bit nervously. "Well… Hi, I'm Jordan B000. Commander Ambrose recruited me as part of one of Doctor Allannah's experiments to test human augmentation on more older people, to widen the options for future SPARTAN-III's, along with testing new augmentations she plans to give current and future Spartan's. So they placed me in Beta Company with you to get me familiar with SPARTAN tactics and such."

"Oh… well… I guess that makes us the first to… welcome you to Beta Company." He said, "My name's Tom."

"Sayane," The girl with B312 on her uniform said nodding.

"Name's Lucy," The other girl said with a smile.

"Catharine… though everyone calls me Kat." The third girl said.

"Adam." The other boy said with a smirk, "And over there is Min, blame him for screwing you over."

"Yeah… uh...sorry?" Min said, scratching the back of his head. "You weren't uh… paying attention."

"Bah… no harm done." Jordan said, cranking his neck a bit. "We're suppose to be Spartan's, if a little fall like that'd hurt me, my pride would come into question." As he spoke, Jordan was doing his best _not_ to fanboy out. Not only was he in the presence of Foxtrot Team, but _also_ Noble Six and Two from Halo Reach! It was a bit surprising though that Noble Six was a woman though.

"Fair enough," Tom said with a chuckle. "Though its nice to have a new face around here, and have someone new after we lost X-ray."

"Lost?" Jordan asked, though he already knew the brief tail of Team X-Ray. "What do you mean?"

Leon sighed, "I… lost my team during a training exercise on Onyx, near the Zone 61 area." He said, actually surprising Jordan. "We saw what looked like a… well, a floating eye in the woods. My three teammates went to check it out, the team leader ordering me to tell the Chief… but when I came back they… were gone. No tags or bodies… like they just vanished..."

"Oh… I'm… sorry to hear that… " Jordan replied, honestly feeling a bit sorry for Leon. While he knew B170 was a Spartan-III from Beta, it was news to him that he was part of the MIA team X-Ray.

"It's alright." Leon said, shaking his head. "That was years ago… all I can do is move forward… though it's been difficult flip-flopping from one team to another. I hope I'll get assigned a more permanent one soon though."

"Wish you luck with that," Jordan said.

"Yeah, we all want our teams intact… though we've been hearing that some of us may get transferred out of Beta for other assignments, like some of Alpha's did." Sayane said shrugging. "Considering what I heard though… they were the lucky ones."

"Hey, don't get all broody." Kat said, nudging Noble Six, "That's not happening to Beta! Not with the Eltee in charge."

"Your right." Jordan stated suddenly, catching the other's attention. "That won't happen. I heard what happened to Alpha Company myself… I'm gonna make sure that doesn't happen to us, you can count on it."

Tom rose an eyebrow at that "You seem awfully sure of that," he said.

"All I know is that when we go on our first mission, we'd best give it 110%." Jordan said, "I may not be the most militarily skilled person here, but I won't sit down and let my friends get killed. I can't say I know what it's like to suffer the same losses you all felt… my family might be alive, might not… but I'll do everything in my power to make sure we _all_ make it back in one piece… and we're gonna make sure that what happened to our families… never happens again."

The young Spartans were surprised by the oath that Jordan just gave him, and they couldn't help but believe him, as smiles formed on their faces.

"I'm with you on that," said Leon.

"I am as well," said Kat.

"Count me in," said Noble Six.

Soon, the rest of the seven III's all gave their agreement. It was then Jordan noticed that Chief Mendez showed up. "Ah, Good - don't have to track you all down." He said, "I see you've already met Petty Officer B000?"

"Yes sir!" The Spartan's all said, saluting as the Chief entered.

"Good." Mendez said, "He'll be working along with the rest of Beta, I want you to help show him the ropes. I couldn't think of anyone better to teach Spartan tactics than Spartans themselves afterall."

"Yes sir!" Tom said, "We'll do our best, sir!"

"Good, Dismissed." Mendez said, returning the salute before he left the rec room.

Jordan sighed as he clapped "Alright, So… where do we begin?" He asked.

* * *

 **March 28th 2545 AD**

 **Reach - ONI Sword Base**

* * *

Cortez sighed as he walked through the interior of ONI Sword base on Reach. The place was filled with ONI Spook's, scientists and guards, but they all ignored him, knowing he wouldn't be here unless he had the clearance - which thankfully he was finally able to obtain.

It had been nearly a month since the Battle of Desdoron, and a month since he helped D.J Cobb get enlisted into the UNSC Marine Corps. After rebuilding his ID, Cortez saw him off to Camp Jackson where his training was underway. He's been keeping tabs on him though, making sure he was doing alright.

Since the battle though, Cortez has been trying to get in contact with his 'friend' within ONI, to give her the alien artifact D.J had obtained. It was… difficult, to say the least, especially since he was trying to _avoid_ drawing in the eyes and ears of unwanted ONI attention. A gut feeling told him that he should try to keep the artifact D.J had as much of a secret as possible. Thankfully though, he had finally been cleared for the visit.

He follows the map to his location, and after a few minutes of walking, he stood before an office door, before knocking. "Enter." A calm voice said inside, prompting Cortez to turn the doorknob, and enter the office.

The room itself was practically in a mess, covered with papers and documents on the floor, and several computers on desks with data drives and the like. Yet it almost seemed that within the mess there was a sense of 'organized chaos'. It looked messy, but at the same time it was organized in a particular way. Though Cortez's attention was soon drawn to the woman sitting behind the desk, her fingers typing away on a computer faster than he had ever seen. She looked old, easily entering her early fifties with black neck-length hair showing some signs of greying and blue eyes.

The woman glanced up at Cortez, as she put her work aside. "Sergeant Cortez," she said nodding. "It certainly has been a while."

"Dr. Halsey," The ODST said nodding, "Good to see you again. How's Cal?"

"Doing better," the Doctor said, "She's recovered from most of her injuries, she should be back on the field in a week. Though I doubt you came here just to check up on her."

Cortez smiled a bit nodding, "Yes I have," he said, before glancing around. "This room is… secured, right?"

Halsey rose a small eyebrow at that, before she typed a few commands into her computer. "It is now," she said. "What is it, Sergeant?"

"This." He said, as he pulled out the L-shaped artifact from his bag, "Found this when me and my team were helping in the evacuation of Desdoron."

Halsey's eyes widened a bit, before she accepted the item. "Interesting..." she said, as she examined the object. "It's not Covenant, that's for sure… its design matches records of other ruins encountered on other worlds… you say you got this from Desdoron?"

"Yes," Cortez said, "A civilian named D.J Cobb claimed a pair of Grunts had it, he took it from them before he met with us… though _he_ is a bit of an oddity."

"How so?" The doctor asked, her interest piked.

"First, was what he was wearing." He said, "His clothes looked more like something I'd expect from the 21st century, yet it didn't look so old. I didn't think much of it, but then I went into his records...or rather a lack there-of them. I initially put this up as his records just being destroyed when the planet was glassed… yet when reports and data from Desdorn came up, D.J Cobb wasn't mentioned _anywhere_. No ID, Social Security… almost as if he never existed in the first place. But the most odd thing was when I inspected his wallet on our way to Reach… he _did_ have an ID card… but unless I saw something crazy… he was _from_ the 21st Century."

"Are you suggesting he time-traveled?" Halsey asked.

"I thought that… but it doesn't explain how he knows about the Covenant if he did," Cortez said, shaking his head. "It all doesn't make sense… the only thing I _do_ know is that he's trustworthy for the most part, and probably came from a family with some military background. When he asked to enlist into the Marines, I helped him 'rebuild' his ID… though as far as he knows, I still think he's from Desdoron."

Halsey hummed as she inspected the artifact. "Curious..." she said, "Very curious… where is Mr. Cobb now?"

"Camp Jackson, undergoing Boot Camp." Cortez said, "I'm keeping tabs on him, making sure he doesn't get himself into trouble."

"Keep at it." She said nodding, "Once he gets out of combat training… I'll see if I can have a word with him about these… inconsistencies. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Sergeant."

"Anything to help, ma'am." The ODST said, before giving her a brief salute and leaving the office, leaving Halsey looking at the alien object.

' _What are you…?_ ' Halsey thought as she looked at the object. It had similar engravings to ruins discovered at Harvest, and several other worlds that had come to her attention. Were the Covenant truly so interested in such a small artifact to attack an outer colony world like Desdoron?

Her computer beeped, signalling she had just received a message. Putting the object down, she read that it was titled 'CPOMZ'. After running a quick check in it, she opened the message.

 _Doctor._

 _I don't have much time, but I'll keep this brief._

 _A month ago while onboard the UNSC_ Hopeful _observing ackerson's 'projects', a rather odd occurrence happened. Some sort of… portal appeared before me, and shot out a young human male, and a dead Covenant Jackal. The human is alive, and we conscripted him into the project to avoid Ackerson's knowledge, Dr. Allannah was able to perform a few of her experimental augmentations on him to add legitimacy to the story._

 _The young man says he's Jordan Tackett. But the odd part about this is the fact he claims he was from the 21st century, and these facts are further proven by the fact he had clothes_ from _that time period, along with an ID claiming he was born back then, and several pieces of technology that are from back then as well. However, when he came over, he possessed a strange object of non-covenant origin. I attached an image to the document._

 _There is much more to Jordan than this though, but it is best to discuss it more in-person with him. I'll find a way to arrange a meeting between you two. But my advice? I hope you're sitting down when you do meet._

 _CPOMZ._

Halsey rose an eyebrow at the simple message, but viewed the image attached. Her eyes then widened - the object… it looked _identical_ to the one she had just been given by Cortez! And the stories were almost parallel as well, both items coming from individuals claiming to be from the past.

' _This… just became_ much _more interesting..._ ' The Doctor thought to herself.

* * *

 **May 9th 2545 AD**

 **Zeta Doradus system - Onyx**

* * *

Three Months.

Jordan let that information process in his head as he ran a series of laps around Camp Currahee on the planet Onyx at 05:00. It had been three months since he arrived in the Halo universe, and officially became a Spartan-III of Beta Company. After meeting with Team Foxtrot, the soon-to-be Noble Team and B170, he had slowly come to know the Spartan's rather well, easily hitting it off as good friends. It was odd to him that they were all no older than 12 while he was about 21 - he'd be 22 if he were back in his own universe by now.

He was surprised that he was able to remember so much despite how much time has gone by, not just about home, but also how he was able to memorize most of the SPARTAN-III's names. Dr. Allannah had told him that among the augmentations he received, one of them was an increased brain capacity which gave him a near photographic memory, capable of remembering everything he ever knew quite fluently, as well as increasing his general IQ quite a bit. He found it a bit unnerving she was _literally_ poking around with his brain, but she assured him that it was 75% safe.

When asked about the other 25%, she said he'd still be in a Coma if it didn't work. She apparently had a dark sense of humor sometimes.

But this aside, Jordan was actually starting to enjoy training with, working and getting to know the other Spartans III's. Though he'd like to think he was also teaching them a few important lessons. While Mendez and Kurt taught them to be soldiers, Jordan viewed himself as teaching them just how to be… well, people. Every few nights he got Kurt's approval to host 'Movie Nights' where he'd play some of his old 21st century movie collection he had with him, along with other movies he downloaded from the waypoint (the 26th century equivalent to the Internet), and even played some of his non-halo games with them, like Battlefield, Command & Conquer, all that and more.

He was quickly becoming the Spartan-III's 'big brother who had all the cool toys'. It was a nice relief to let the 12 year olds be… well, 12 year olds. Giving them something to do that _didn't_ revolve around either training, drilling or preparing for war. Let the kids be kids for once.

Naturally though, Mendez didn't completely agree with it, thinking it was a waste. Though Jordan had explained to him 'it's one thing to teach them to be soldiers, but it's another to teach them how to be normal humans. You can't expect them to be in the military life forever, and I would like to make sure they can still socialize with people who _aren't_ Spartans'. He wasn't completely convinced, though he reluctantly agreed when Kurt approved.

"On your left." He heard someone as Jordan glanced to his left as he saw Leon B170 run up behind him on his left, smiling. "Your up early, Boss."

Jordan shrugged "Early bird catches the worm… you know the saying." He said, as the two kept running. Mendez had assigned Leon to Jordan's team, giving Leon an official team once more. Jordan had picked the name 'Fireteam Mythic' for their name, to which Leon approved of, just glad he was now stuck with a team. Though it was still just him and Leon at the moment.

"Yeah… I heard we may be going on our first mission soon." Leon said. "Though the Eltee said he was transferring Sayane out of her team once her training was done."

B000 sighed at that. He had gotten pretty close to Sayane, she was like that younger sister who could be a bit annoying, but ya still loved her. But he knew it was necessary, after all Sayane was to eventually become Noble Six… or Noble Seven if he somehow figured out how to save Thom-A293.

"She's one of the toughest out of all of us," Jordan said as they completed their 15th lap. "She can handle herself out there."

"Yeah..." Leon said with a sigh. "Maybe we'll see her again?"

"I think we will," Jordan said with a confident smile, "You never know how the future turns out."

"I hope so..." Leon said, as the two finally came to a stop to catch a breather. "I've already lost too much family to this war..."

Jordan frowned a bit, as he put a reassuring hand on his 'little brother's' shoulder. Along with loosing X-Ray, he had told him his family all died on Arcadia when the Covenant attacked in 2531 - much like the other III's. "I promised you and the others I was gonna make sure we'd all get out of this alive," he said, "And I mean it, Leon. So long as we stay together, work together, and fight together, the Covenant won't know what hit them."

Leon grinned a bit at that "Got that right," he said, nudging Jordan. "Come on, race ya to the mess hall!" He then began running back towards the camp.

"H-Hey! You got an early start!" Jordan shouted, as he ran after Leon, who was laughing all the way.

* * *

 **May 9th 2545 AD**

 **Camp Jackson - Reach**

* * *

"Alright Maggots! Let's move it! Move it! MOVE IT!" shouted the Drill Sergeant as the new recruits all ran through the obstacle course, which consisted of rubble, barbed wire, and, to their shock, some animal parts, all bloodied and dismembered. They were all wearing their M52B Body Armor, CH252 Helmets and carrying MA5 series Assault rifles as they crawled or ran through the course.

"Now I know how Easy Company felt with Sobel," D.J. muttered as he quickly crawled through the obstacles, before rolling through a small pit filled with animal blood and entrails, "FUCK!"

"Get out of the dirt! Move it Goddamnit!" The Sergeant shouted as D.J climbed out of the pit and back onto the course. "Come on you apes, you wanna live forever?!"

' _And now he's quoting Starship Trooper..._ ' D.J thought as he got back up to his fleet as he ran and climbed up a rope wall before jumping down the opposite side.

"Why do I get the feeling… this guy hates this company?" A voice behind him said, as D.J glanced back where another Marine-in-training was following him, his gear IDing him as 'PVT C. Dubbo'.

"Nah, Chip… just hates you." D.J said, as he continued to run the course, with Chips groaning as he followed.

"A comedian, great..." Chips muttered.

"Speed it up, Chips!" A voice said passing by him as a young woman with short brown hair tied up into a short bob ponytail and brown eyes. The Tag on her uniform, identifying her as 'LCPR. Palmer', "Do what Cobb does and focus on the job!"

The new recruits continued their run through the course, until they reached a rock climbing. D.J. looked up at the height and after taking a deep began to climb it, Palmer and Chips, along with another arrived after him.

"You gotta be kidding me, we have to climb THAT?" Another Marine in-training, this one with the badge PVT. Parson on his uniform.

"Quit your bitching, just get going!" Palmer said as she began climbing up the wall, soon followed by Chips.

"Parson! If you don't move your ass now, I will personally shoot you IN the Ass!" The Drill sergeant shouted, as Parson scrambled up the wall with his squadmates.

 _This_ had become D.J's life as he trained to become a Marine. For three months he had to deal with their nigh intolerable Drill sergeant, as they drilled and drilled to the point it was beginning to get absurd. He was quickly making the Drill sergeants in movies look like weaklings. For nearly 13 weeks this was almost non-stop. While D.J knew that the sergeant was just doing his best to make sure they'd actually _survive_ against the Covenant, it didn't stop him from wanting to put a bullet in him at times.

After what felt like an _eternity_ later though, after running through the course forwards and back again, _finally_ the Marines of Bravo Company could rest as they sat at the forest. "Fuck me..." Chips muttered, "13 weeks… and I got bruises on my damn bruises now..."

"Shake it off, Chips." Sarah Palmer said chuckling a bit as she nudged him. "The pain means it's working."

"Listen to her Chips," D.J. said, as he took his helmet off "This shit will benefit us in the end. And besides, this is our last week of training, just one more day, and we're officially Marines,"

Chips nodded tiredly, as he laid against the tree, while Sarah Palmer smiled.

"Ya know Cobb, you did good in not causing any trouble," she said, while D.J. smiled at the soon to be SPARTAN-IV.

"I aim to please, not annoy. If I do the latter, D.I. kicks my ass," he said.

"Cobb! Front and center, the Colonel wants to see ya!" The Drill Sergeant yelled.

"Looks like you spoke too soon." Sarah said, smirking as D.J groaned as he stood up with his gear as he headed up where the Sergeant was, along with another individual with the rank pins of a UNSC Marine Colonel. She was african american, looked to be in her late thirties with short black hair and brown eyes. Upon reaching them, D.J saluted. "Corporal D.J Cobb, Reporting Ma'am!" He said.

The Colonel returned the salute, "At ease, Corporal," she said, "Drill Sergeant Ibanez tells me that among all the recruits, you and two others are among his top best, with you and Sergeant Palmer tieing for number one in his book,"

D.J. blinked at that, but kept a calm expression and straight posture.

"Thank you, Ma'am," he said, and Colonel April Orenski sighed.

"And since you're the only recruit here with actual combat experience prior to coming to Reach, I had put you, as well as a few others up as possible candidates for the ODSTs," she said, and that threw D.J. for loop, if the widening of his eyes was any indication.

"May I ask, why is that, Ma'am?" he said.

"Aside from the aforementioned reason… Master Sergeant Cortez, whom you are already familiar with, made a mention of your skills during the Battle of Desdoron." April explained, "He too had put your name in for ODST training. As such, once you and the other candidates complete your training, you are being transferred over to the 7th Shock Troops Battalion to undergo 3 weeks of combat training. "

D.J. was surprised, as he was under the impression that he needed more actual COMBAT EXPERIENCE in order to become something as an ODST. Apparently, Orenski and Cortez personally recommended him, and he as well as a few others were going to be part of the non-SPARTAN badasses of the UNSC. Not that he had any ill feelings towards SPARTANs in the first place.

He then gave a salute, "Understood, Ma'am," he said, and April returned the salute and dismissed him, and he turned around and headed back toward the squad, silent as a ghost.

"You've definitely gave him the shock of a lifetime," said Ibanez, while April sighed.

"It won't be the last, either." She said, "We need more soldiers like him now more than ever… he's got a purpose to fight the Covenant, but he's not all gung-ho about it."

* * *

 **May 15th 2545 AD**

 **Onyx - Camp Currahee**

* * *

"...Operation: CARTWHEEL will be scheduled within five days." Kurt informed as he stood in front of the company of SPARTAN-III's in the auditorium of the camp, with a map of the mission plan behind him. "This will be your first mission, Spartan's. While it may seem easy, treat this just as you would treat any other mission. Dismissed."

Jordan sighed as he stood up along with the other Spartans. As the days went by, the closer it got to Day Zero: July 3rd when Operation: TORPEDO would begin. While CARTWHEEL seemed like an easy enough assignment, a simple raid on a Covenant outpost, Jordan's mind was still focused on how to keep the Spartan's alive during their inevitable mission. While they were ready for most of what the Covenant could send at them, he had yet to formulate a plan to deal with the seven Covenant Cruisers that will arrive in the battlespace and bombard them from orbit, let alone the sheer number of reinforcements they'll bring.

One of his earlier ideas would be to bring several Fury Nuclear Warheads, and board the ships, much like how Thom was able (or will be able too) during the Battle of Fumirole - without killing whoever did. However, that would involve fighting past the reinforcing army which numbered in the thousands, and to do so a total of _seven times_. The Covenant may be arrogant, but sadly they were not _that_ stupid.

He wished that perhaps they could acquire superior orbital support, perhaps an ONI Prowler could lay a nuclear minefield in front of the Cruiser's path and detonate them. However getting ONI to agree with such a plan was just as unlikely. Neither was the possibility that the UNSC would send a fleet to deal with the orbital defenses, distracting them from the surface battle. But Jordan refused to just bow out and accept defeat. He _will_ save Beta Company… no matter what.

He was about to leave the auditorium before he heard Mendez speak. "B000, a word please." Jordan turned around, as he saw Kurt and Mendez approach him.

"Yes, sirs?"

"We're assigning you and B170 on a separate mission from the others," Mendez informed, causing Jordan to blink in surprise.

"But… why sir?" He asked, confused. "They… they're my teammates, I can't just-"

"We know you don't have much information on what happens during Operation: CARTWHEEL," Kurt said, "We don't want you changing what happens during that battle, since your presence there could easily go either way. But we do have a very important assignment for you and Leon; one which may help you save Beta from their… fate, at 51 Pegasi B."

 _This_ immediately grabbed his attention, as he rose an eyebrow. "How so, sir?" He asked. Kurt gestured him to follow them, to which Jordan obliged as he followed them elsewhere in the building.

"Tell me, what do you know about Algolis?" Kurt asked, as Jordan processed that name in his head, thinking of all the info he had on halo before he recalled it.

"The Battle of Algolis… it was covered by the Halo Legends anime episode 'Prototype', and the short story 'Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian'. The latter covered the Covenant boarding of the UNSC Destroyer _Heart of Midlothian_ , while the former went over the surface battle itself, and Sergeant Ghost's actions in saving UNSC personnel by using the prototype Exoskeleton. The planet was evacuated, but as per Cole Protocol all data was destroyed, and Ghost used the Prototype to defend the evacuating shuttles to save the rest of his men before activating its self-destruct feature. And the UNSC _Heart of Midlothian_ was also destroyed via self-destruct due to Covenant boarders attempting to access the AI Mo Ye after killed most of the crew, save for one ODST who lived long enough to allow Mo Ye to initiate the Cole Protocol."

"We've seen that much from your books and DVD's." Kurt said, as they kept walking. "I received a report that a possible Covenant presence was detected at Algolis, possibly advance shock troops to prepare for the invasion itself. HIGHCOMM has prepared the Cole Protocol, and the _Heart of Midlothian_ is preparing to be sent to Algolis as we speak. I need you and B170 on that Destroyer when she heads out, and help in the battle on the surface… and recover the Prototypes."

" _Recover_?" Jordan asked, "Not destroy?"

"The Mark I ADS's - while more expensive than a suit of standard MJOLNIR - is one of the most advanced weapon systems ever developed out of the T12A Research Facility." Kurt informed, "I know for a fact they have several prototypes there, not just the Mark I. If you could recover them, or even just recover _one_ of them, it will greatly increase our chances of ensuring Beta Company's survival in the battle to come. You yourself saw what just a single Mark One can do."

Jordan thought about it for a few moments, and he _did_ have a point. The Mark I seen in Prototype was able to hold off a Covenant Battalion single-handedly by a Marine who never used it before, imagine how deadly one could be in the hands of an experienced Spartan? And that was just the Mark I - units like the Mark II which appeared briefly in Halo 4 on the CAA _Heavy Burden_ , or even something like the Mark IX Mantis would give them a distinct advantage in the coming battle.

"... I understand, but if it's just me and Leon, we could use some backup." Jordan said, however he noticed Mendez seemed to let out one of his rare smiles.

"Who ever said you two were going in alone?" He asked, as they approached a door at the end of the hallway, and opened it. Inside was a small meeting room, which was already occupied by two individuals of about the same age wearing SPI Mark II armor like Beta Company's own, telling him they were Spartan's, only closer to Jordan's age. The first was a young woman with short neck-length brown hair and blue eyes, her SPI armor being colored sage green with some silver trimming, with the ID A244 on her chestplate. Standing next to her was a young man with short crew cut black hair and brown eyes, his armor colored navy blue with black trimming, and A019 on his armor.

Upon them entering, the two stood up at attention. "At ease you two," Kurt said, waving them off. "Jordan, these here are Spartans A019 Kai, and A244 Rosenda. They will be joining Mythic team along with you and Leon for this mission."

Jordan blinked in surprise, as he recognized the Spartan's both from their names and faces. Rosenda was going to be a member of Noble team before she was cut from the game, but was still considered canon. Kai was from the 'Birth of a Spartan' trailer for Halo Reach, but it was unknown if he was part of Operation: PROMETHEUS or not. "I… see." He said.

"So, you're our new lead?" Rosenda asked, stepping up towards Jordan as if sizing him up. "Seems kinda green to me, Sir."

"Jordan is a Spartan, just like you all." Kurt assured, "He may not have trained for as long as Alpha or Beta, he has the necessary skills to lead a fireteam."

"Let's hope so." Kai said, as he kept staring at Jordan. "So, where we off to, sir?"

"You will be taking a Condor over to Sargasso, where you will rendezvous and board the UNSC _Heart of Midlothian_." Kurt explained, "Her crew has already been notified. Once onboard, you will head for the Algolis System where there is a possible Covenant infiltration underway. Your mission is to recover the various T12A facility prototypes there, and bring them back to Onyx for usage in Operation: TORPEDO."

"Understood, sir." Rosenda said, glancing back at Jordan as she smirked a bit. "You think you've got what it takes, kid?" She asked.

Jordan rose an eyebrow, "First, I'm pretty sure we're about the same age." He said, "And second… I wouldn't be here if I _didn't_ think I was ready."

"That's what I want to hear," Kurt said, smiling. "I'll let you all get acquainted, just be sure to bring Leon up to speed, Jordan. Dismissed."

* * *

 **May 21st 2545 AD**

 **Reach - UNSC _Heart of Midlothian_**

* * *

A D77-TC Pelican Dropship landed in the hangar bay of the _Halberd-_ class Destroyer UNSC _Heart of Midlothian_ , standing before it were several men wearing ODST Battle Dress Uniforms, among those standing there were none other than Master Sergeant Fernando Cortez himself. The Pelican spun around, before its passenger door opened as over a dozen men and some women in Marine uniforms stepped off of the Pelican. He had his eye out for one in particular, and he was not disappointed as he smiled slightly as he saw D.J disembark the Pelican.

The Marines all stood in front of the ODST's, snapping to attention when they saw the Sergeant. "At ease," Cortez said, as he walked in front of the Marines. "Alright you Jarheads, listen up! If you think your Drill Sergeant was tough, the next few weeks are gonna make boot camp look like a cake walk for ya'll! 'Cause your not gonna be _just_ Marines… you're gonna be part of the Orbital Drop Shock Troops! The Helljumpers! And just _why_ are we called Helljumpers?"

"We go feet first, sir!" The Marines shouted in unison.

Cortez smirked a bit "You know, maybe I _should_ retire, 'Cause I swear I didn't hear a goddamn thing!" He shouted.

"WE GO FEET FIRST, SIR!" They shouted once more, much more louder this time.

"Oh, I just felt my dick move," Cortez said, getting a few chuckles. "Now, this ain't gonna be some ice cream social, ladies. We are going to teach each and every one of you how to be a REAL fucking ODST. And sure we can teach ya how to ride a HEV, drive a Hog and shit… but the _best_ training comes from some actual combat, which is where we're gonna be going!"

"Once you get your gear, the _Midlothian_ is setting course for Sargasso for some special gear, then we're heading over to Algolis, where we've been hearing a few Rumors that our old friends in the Covenant have been poking their little noses around where they don't belong!"

D.J. perked when Cortez said Algolis, the Halo Legends episode popping into his head.

 _'So the Covenant haven't full out attacked Algolis, yet,'_ he thought as he listened to what the Master Sergeant was saying, ' _That means he must still alive,'_

"When we enter the combat and we find those alien bastards, we're gonna show them how ODSTs fight! That clear Marines!?"

"OORAH!"

"Is there something in my ears, I said: IS THAT CLEAR, MARINES?!"

"OORAH!"

" _THat's_ what I want to hear!" Cortez shouted, "Get your asses over here and get your bunks! We've got a _long_ way to go, and a short time to get there!"

"YES SIR!"

"Dismissed!"

With that the group of Marines broke up, and went to the Marine Barracks on the Destroyer, with D.J. going along with them, as he hefted his duffle bag over his shoulder and began to go with them before he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder and turned and saw Cortez there with a smirk on his face.

"Hey, long time no see, Kid," Cortez, and then blinked when he saw the Corporal Stripes on his uniform, "I see you made Corporal while in Bootcamp,"

D.J. returned the smile as he placed the duffle bag down, and shook Cortez's hand.

"Good to see again, Sarge. And yeah, got this, after I prevented a Recruit back at bootcamp from getting his head blown when we were crawling under barbed wire with a fucking LAAG going off." He said, remembering the incident well where he saw a shellshocked recruit about to try to jump out of the course of death, only for him to stop the young kid from getting himself killed.

"I heard about that," Cortez said nodding, "Good to see you've been making progress."

"Your training sure did help," D.J replied, nodding. "So, which unit am I in?"

"You and one Chips Dubbo will be joining my team, Omega Four." He answered, "Buck and Dutch got transferred out into Alpha Nine, so you two'll be replacing them. Lance Corporal Sarah Palmer - who I heard was in your squad - is attached to Gamma Six, under Sergeant Pham's command."

"Understood, sir." D.J said nodding.

"Good to have you with us, Kid." Cortez said, patting D.J on the shoulder. "Come on, I'll show ya to your bunk."

D.J. picked up his duffle bag again. "Lead the way Sarge," he said, and the two walked off to the Barracks.

* * *

 **117Jorn: And thus, we have the calm before the storm… what is to become of the UNSC _Heart of Midlothian_? How shall the Battle of Algolis go now? And will Jordan B000 be able to save Beta Company at Operation: TORPEDO?**

 **Patriot-112: And what about D.J.'s future as a ODST, what other unexpected are to happen?**

 **117Jorn: Find out, in the next exciting new episode of DRAGON BALL- err, i mean Halo: Inheritance!**

 **Both: Ja Ne!**


End file.
